Miller: The Challenge
It’s one thing to have water filters, stored food, candles, flashlights, batteries, and the like stored up for emergencies and quiet another to know how to use them, repair them if they quit working, and to know what heretofore unthought-of of accessories you’ll need to get the most from your emergency gear when you need it. The only way to know for sure if you have over looked something critical is to put both you and your emergency equipment to the test. Are you up to taking the challenge?
For months … perhaps years you have been collecting and stashing away things you think you might need for some future emergency whether it be natural or man made. You have some tucked away in kitchen cupboards, others stored in the hall closet, while others are in the bedroom closets and drawers as well as the garage. You feel a sense of security knowing you have heeded the warnings to prepare.
Despite having all the goodies you could think of for an emergency, how prepared are you really? In other words, have you put your emergency equipment and your skill at using them in the most efficient way to the test? If not then perhaps you are not really as prepared as you think you are. To be truly prepared is more than having a bunch of stuff you have collected from the stores and then stored unopened in some closet until they may be needed in some future emergency. It means putting everything to the test so you know with absolute certainty how everything works and the best and most efficient manner that everything should be used. Additionally it means that you have the skills to use and make light repairs on your equipment when needed. If you have stuff packed away you have never used and if you have never gone through any type of significant emergency situation before then to be truly prepared you must take the challenge. Just like the military holds mock drills on different scenarios all the time, so to you must have periodic emergency drills to both get you into shape and to fine tune your skills.
Ok, just as does the military you need to plan ahead for your disaster drill. What type of emergency will the drill be based upon? Let’s say a large earthquake struck your area. It knocked out the power grid and there is no electricity for a large area around you. This will mean there will be no electric lights, heat, air conditioning, refrigeration and no water running out of the faucet because the electric water pumps are not working. Further the stove and other natural gas devices will not be operational as the gas was turned off at the main for safety reasons. Your apartment or house survived and is in sound condition. Since your car is almost out of gas and the gas stations are closed because the electric pumps that pump the gas from the underground tanks to the fuel hose are not working your car is for all practical purposes useless. This will be an emergency which will last for a full day and night or 24 hours. This is the disaster setting you will be planning for as you prepare for the practice drill.
The challenge … You and any who reside with you will set one day, a full 24 hour period, aside where you will live as if this emergency scenario described above was for real. At the beginning of the drill period all electric circuit breakers will be turned off to your house or apartment. Everyone participating in the drill will be under strict orders not to turn on any water taps, use the shower, or flush the toilet. Additionally everyone will know that they are to consider any natural gas device, such as a stove or heater off limits. You will truly be on your own with your emergency supplies for this 24 hour period.
When the military plans an exercise drill, after they have the scenario in mind they then begin to go over their equipment to make sure they will have everything they think they will need. You need to do the same thing. Take stock of what emergency supplies and equipment you already have on hand. Do you have everything you will need for the number of people who will participate in the drill with you? If not then use this time before the date you set for your drill to begin to procure those missing items.
On the day the drill begins, remember to turn off all electricity. Instruct everyone there is to be no use of water of any type from the water main and that goes for not using any natural gas device. Travel will have to be done on foot, skates, skateboards, or bike unless you have stored petrol for the car at hand. Consider all stores closed so you can not buy anything that day. Then go about living out that day with what you have on hand. If you have freeze dried food or want coffee or another warm beverage, you will of course need water, hope you thought of that, and some means to heat it up, hope you thought of that also. You will need to know how to operate your cooking device safely. You will have thought about how you all will get rid of your body’s waste in a safe manner.
What are you going to do all this time? Did you think of some form of entertainment or useful activity for both the adults and children to do during the drill period? As the sun begins to set you will need to think about lighting for the night time hours. As you involve yourself in this mock emergency drill, you will learn many things and develop new and useful skills. You will probably also discover that you have overlooked several things that you could have used.
For example, you may have thought about how you would deal with body waste but forget to stock up toilet paper. Perhaps you have cupboards full of can goods but no can opener to open them. You always used the electric can opener on the kitchen counter, which is fine when you have power, but you will need an old fashioned hand cranked can opener when you don’t have power. You bought several portable AM/FM Shortwave radios for emergencies which you had stored in unopened boxes in a cupboard shelf. When you took one out and put in the batteries it came with you discover they are dead from sitting too long. They are size AAA batteries and you don’t have any triple A’s around only double A’s and C’s and D’s for the flashlights. This is why it is important to not just buy things and throw them in a shelf until needed. Every emergency item you buy you should open it up, use it. Get to know it, and stock up on any accessories that it may need to keep going. You might have underestimated the amount of water you and any others with you would need for the day and find yourself running short. You get a brainstorm that in the water heater there is forty or fifty gallons of water for the taking. This is fair game. You shut off the gas to let the water cool down and when you go out to draw water from its water spigot you discover it doesn’t have a handle you can turn but takes a wrench and you don’t have a wrench that will fit it. You may have yourself a portable propane stove, propane lights, and propane heaters. You also bought yourself a case of propane canisters to fuel them but never bothered to play with all of them and determine how many minuets or hours each of these gas devices would last per cylinder. Unless you have had this prior hands on experience you could very well find yourself short of gas and unable to cook, have heat, or even light.
The steps you will take are:
1. Devise your disaster scenario.
2. Set a specific date your disaster drill will begin.
3. Review the supplies already on hand, are they enough? What’s you missing?
4. Estimate what else you will need for the number of people in the drill and have them on hand before the day the drill is to begin.
5. Begin disaster drill.
After the drill is over review it with all participants, get everyone’s input. What else was needed that you didn’t have? What things, while not absolute necessities, would have been good to have around? What was learned by the drill? What areas could you use more training or learning on? Also, as part of your drill summation, compare what you have remaining of each item to what you started with to get an idea of how much of each item you need for one full day. Knowing this will make it easy for you to calculate how much of each item you will need to stock up on for a 30, 60, 90 day or even a year’s supply.
It is important that everyone go through periodic disaster drills to maximize the chances of survival. Doing so will allow you to find weaknesses that can be taken care of before disaster strikes. Once the disaster is upon you it’s too late to learn you are on your own. If you have a family, you can make a game out of this. Get the children involved. Tell them what you will all be doing and to help think of things that you will need. Get everyone involved. What a great way to bring the family closer together in a like minded manner, every member helping out the other. Doing this will make it fun, almost like going camping and the 24 hour drill period will seem to fly by. If you’ve never lived your own disaster drill why not give it a try one day soon. It could mean your life or the life of a friend or loved one.
March 15, 2010
~ The Author ~
Lawrence Lee Miller is a daily listener to Perspectives on America and a frequent contributor to The Federal Observer. Mr. MIller lives in Santa Clarita, California.
Very good advice. I will pass this on to friends and family. Luckily we all love to go camping and have a lot of things that we would need. We did have an earthquake last night. That aways gets us thinking. We have a big emergency backpack, but I better go check the batteries. We are running out of bottle water too.
Thanks for the reminder.
Great Article Mr. Miller! I’ll pass this around! California may just be hit with a 9-11 disaster this coming October right before the elections. I’m going to stick my head out and even give it a date: 10/10/10 - as a starting date of probability. There are quite a few hints given by the Media Elite and it’s my guess it might be NUCLEAR to disrupt the coming election process and to shut California down. Too many signs are evident. Businesses leaving for Mexico, high taxes, hostile business environments, etc. It’s just a guess but being prepared for disaster is very important indeed.